In Conflict is full of love songs— more specifically, songs about liminal states and our loved ones locked in battle with them.
“The record is meant to approach ‘insanity’ in a positive way,” Owen says— emphasis on the ironizing scare quotes around singular notions of insanity. “Depression, addiction, gender trouble, and the creative state are presented as positive, loveable, empathetic ways of being. Not preferable, per se, but all as equal, valid positions that we experience, which make us human.”
The songs are pretty but deeply unnerving — they cause discomfort in sensuous & seductive ways. While made with the rigor of a classicist, this isn’t classical music or even indie-classical music. Pallett is not just “approved of” by Establishment Art Music people (though he is)— he is also beloved for his accessibility; for the way his art reflects & resonates with Mainstream Pop Culture; for the emotionally cathartic outlet his music provides.